Search+for+Meaning+in+America+Topic+3

Topic
toc **Nonfictional/Informational Texts:** Essays, Memoirs, Credo **Theme:** Search for Meaning in America

Students will continue to examine the theme, "search for meaning in America" through the reading, interpreting, and analyzing nonfictional/informational texts. Students will continue to use analyzing, inferencing, interpreting, and examining techniques to cite textual evidence to support the theme and to demonstrate an understanding of the authors' styles and tone. Students will show a connection among the selections in this unit. A personal memoir, a comparison/contrast essay,a literary(theme) essay, and a chidhood event essay are some of the highights of this topic.

Common Core Standards

 * RL.11-12.4**: Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics
 * RI.11-12.6:** Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective
 * RL.11-12.6:** Analyze how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text
 * RL.11-12.1:** Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly
 * RL.11-12.3:** Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem, evaluating how each version interprets the source text
 * RI.11-12.1**: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determiing where the text leaves matter uncertain.
 * RI.11-12.2:** Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis
 * RI.11-12.2:** Provide an objective summary of the text
 * RI.11-12.3**: Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.
 * RI.11-12.4**: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text.
 * RI.11-12.8 :** Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S.texts, including the application of constitutional principles and use legal reasoning, and the premises, purposes, and agruments in works of public advocacy.
 * RI.11-12.9:** Analyze seventeenth, eighteenth, and ninteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance
 * W.11-12.1**: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topic or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
 * W.11-12.2:** Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content
 * W.11-12.3:** Write narrative to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences
 * W.11-12.6:** Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information
 * W.11-12.8:** Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources,using advanced searches effectively
 * W.11-12.5:** Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a special purpose and audience.
 * SL.11-12.1:** Initiate and __participate__ effectively in a range of collaborative discussions(one-on-one, in groups,and __teacher__-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, ans issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
 * SL.11-12.2**: Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media( e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibilityracy and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data
 * L.11-12.1:** Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
 * L.11-12.3**: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
 * L.11-12.4:** Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11-12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
 * L.11-12.5:** Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
 * L.11-12.6:** Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level.
 * L11-12.6:** Demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Suggested Student Objectives

 * Analyze diction and syntax as introduced in a variety of texts **L.11-12.6,** **L.11-12.3**
 * Integrate quotes in texts **RI.11-12.3**
 * Identify meanings of words that fit the context **L.11-12.5,** **RI.11-12.4, L.11-12.6, L.11-12.1**
 * Analyze a personal essay for language use, tone, and character development **L.11-12.3**
 * Conduct a syntactical analysis of a portion of text **L.11-12.6,** **L.11-12.3,** **L.11-12.4**
 * Identify the historical, geographical, and/or cultural context of a memoir **L.11-12.1,** **RI.11-12.9**
 * Examine and critique a personal statement (credo). **W.11-12.5,** **RL.11-12.1**

Suggested Additional Readings

 * "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" (Annie Dillard)- Essay - Teacher Copy
 * The Chase (Annie Dillard) Essay- //Springboard: English Textual Power, Level 6,// pages 397-400
 * Straw into Gold: The Metamorphosis of the Everyday (Sandra Cisneros) Essay-//Springboard: English Textual Power, Level 6, pp.392-396//
 * "How it Feels to be Colored Me," (Zora Neale Hurston) - Memoir - //Springboard: English Textual Power, Level 6, pages 289-292//
 * //A Slight Sound of Evening// (E.B. White) - Essay - Teacher Copy
 * Credo from //All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten//(Robert Fulghum) - credo( a personal belief statement about life) -//Springboard: English Textual Power, Level 6,// pages 367-368

Resource Links
Prentice Hall //Literature: The American Experience// //Springboard: English Textual Power, Level 6// //sandra.stahlman.com/dillard.html//

Activities

 * COLLABORATE:**
 * Discuss (in a cooperative setting) the essential features of a memoir **L.11-12.1, SL11.12-1**
 * READ:**
 * Read and answer questions about key details in the texts. **RL.11-12.1,** **RI.11-12.1**
 * Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicity and when drawing inferences from the text **RL.11-12.1,** **RI.11-12.1**
 * Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicity as well as inferences drawn from the text. **RL.11-12.1,** **RI.11-12.2**
 * WRITE:**
 * Use graphic organizers to explore the function and use of syntax in the text(e.g. Fulghum's Credo and Hurston's Essay) or any other texts from this unit. **L.11-12.6,** **L.11-12.3**
 * Choose two texts from this unit and write an essay from the perspective of "an unparalleled enthusiasm for life and skill at expressing it." Use textual suport. **RI.11-12.2**
 * Draft a personal memoir of "How It Feels to Be _ Me" and share it with peers. **W.11-12.3**
 * Choose two texts from this unit and create a visual representation (powerpoint) from the perspective of the theme "search for meaning." **RI.11-12.2,** **SL.11-12.1, SL.11-12.2**
 * Compare and contrast Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," E.B. White's "A Slight Sound of Evening," with Thoreau's Walden. Include observations of nature as a focal point**. RL.11-12.5, RL.11-12.1, W.11-12.5**
 * Recreate a childhood event (narrative format, anecdote similar in style with "The Chase," "How It Feels to be Colored Me," or any other texts from this topic) in which you observe the experience of someone else. **W11-12.3, L.11-12.1, L.11-12.3, L.11-12.5**

Assessments
The teacher will conduct observations and assistance during class activities. Students will be assessed through responses to oral questioning and appropriate homework assignments. The students will be assessed on the group assignment through a group and individual rubric by teacher as well as students. Students' and essays will be assessed through the use of an essay rubric based on the specific type of writing. Students' responses to interpretative questions following each selection will be graded, either orally or written. Students will complete a check test and/or quiz after the completion of each section of the texts. All oral presentations will be assessed through peer feedback/critiques and written reflections ,and teacher rubrics and/or comments.

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